SABLE POV
My wolf was dying and it was all Thea's fault.
I clutched the steering wheel tighter as I drove deeper into rogue territory, ignoring the way my hands shook. Three years. I'd been Luna for three years, living the perfect life with the perfect mate. I'd won everything.
So why did it feel like I was losing?
"You're being dramatic," I told myself. "Everything is fine."
Except it wasn't. My wolf Ember had stopped speaking to me six months ago. My skin had started breaking out in strange rashes that no amount of makeup could hide. And worst of all, Dane had been looking at me differently lately—like he was seeing someone else when he looked in my eyes.
Like he was starting to remember.
The bond-transfer spell was failing. I'd known it for weeks but refused to admit it. Now I had no choice.
Lysander Mordaunt's cabin appeared through the trees like something from a nightmare. Dark, isolated, surrounded by dead plants and an aura that made normal wolves turn and run.
I wasn't normal. I was desperate.
"You're late," Lysander said before I'd even knocked. The rogue witch opened the door, his ageless face showing no emotion. "And judging by your scent, you're also dying."
"I need a renewal," I said, pushing past him into the cabin. "The spell is weakening."
"Of course it is." Lysander moved to a table covered in strange bottles and ingredients. "Bond-transfer magic was never meant to last three years. I told you that."
"You said it would last as long as I needed!"
"I said it would last as long as your sister's blood held power." He turned those cold eyes on me. "How many samples do you have left?"
I pulled out the small wooden box from my purse. Inside were three vials of blood—all that remained of the samples I'd collected from Thea before the mating ceremony. Back when we'd shared a bathroom and I could steal her hairbrush, her used bandages, anything with her blood on it.
"Three," I admitted. "Maybe enough for three more months."
"Three weeks," Lysander corrected. "The spell is degrading faster now. Each renewal lasts shorter than the last."
Panic clawed up my throat. "Then make it stronger! Add more magic, use different ingredients, I don't care—just make it last!"
"It doesn't work that way." Lysander examined me with disturbing intensity. "The magic is poisoning your wolf. That's why she won't speak to you anymore. She knows you've committed an abomination against the Moon Goddess."
"I don't care about my wolf!" The words burst out before I could stop them. "I care about keeping Dane! I'm Luna! I've worked too hard, sacrificed too much—"
"You've sacrificed nothing," Lysander interrupted quietly. "Your sister has sacrificed everything while you've played pretend with a mate bond that was never yours."
I wanted to argue, but images flashed through my mind. Thea growing thinner each month. The hollow look in her eyes. The way she'd started avoiding family dinners, pack gatherings, anywhere she might see Dane and me together.
Good. She deserved to suffer. This was her fault for being born with the bond I wanted.
"I need more of her blood," I said. "Fresh blood. Enough to make the spell permanent."
Lysander actually laughed—a cold, dead sound. "There's no such thing as permanent with this magic. And fresh blood?" He shook his head. "You'd need her to give it willingly for that to work. Blood taken by force has no power for renewal spells."
"Then what do I do?" My voice rose to a near-scream. "Just wait for the spell to fail? For Dane to suddenly feel his real bond and realize I tricked him? For him to hate me and choose Thea?"
"You should have thought of that before stealing someone's fated mate."
"I didn't steal anything!" I slammed my hands on the table. "Dane is MINE! I loved him first! I wanted him first! The Moon Goddess made a mistake choosing Thea—she's weak, pathetic, nothing! I'm the one who should have been his mate!"
Lysander studied me for a long moment. "You truly believe that."
"Because it's true."
"Then you're more delusional than I thought." He turned back to his ingredients. "I can give you one more renewal. It will buy you three weeks, maybe four. After that, the spell will collapse completely and Dane will feel everything—his real bond with Thea, the three years of her suffering, all of it."
Three weeks. That was all I had left.
"Unless," Lysander added slowly, "you remove the problem entirely."
My heart skipped. "What do you mean?"
"The bond exists between Dane and Thea. If one of them dies, the bond dies with them." His eyes met mine. "And a dead wolf can't reclaim a stolen mate."
The suggestion hung in the air like poison.
Kill Thea.
The thought should have horrified me. Should have made me recoil. We were twins. We'd shared a womb. We'd grown up together.
But instead, I felt... relief.
Yes. That was the answer. It had always been the answer, I'd just been too weak to admit it.
"How would I—" I started.
"Make it look like an accident," Lysander said. "Wolves die in the forest all the time. Rogue attacks, falls, drowning in the river. So many possibilities."
He was right. And Thea made it easy, always running off into the woods alone at night. Always standing too close to cliffs. Always looking like she wanted to die anyway.
I'd be doing her a favor, really.
"There's one problem," Lysander continued. "The moment she dies, Dane will feel it. The severed bond will hit him like a lightning strike. He'll know his real mate is gone, even if he never knew who she was."
"But he won't know it was murder," I said slowly. "He'll think it was an accident. He'll grieve, but he'll stay with me. Eventually, he'll move on."
"Perhaps." Lysander's smile was chilling. "Or perhaps losing his true mate will destroy him and he'll hate you for the rest of his life. Either way, you'll still be Luna."
That's what mattered. Being Luna. Having power, status, everything I'd dreamed of since I was a little girl watching my father bow to the Alpha.
Thea had always been in my way. Always the quiet, bookish one that our parents compared me to. "Why can't you be more like Thea? She's so sweet, so gentle." It made me sick.
Well, sweet and gentle wouldn't save her now.
"I'll do it," I said. "I'll handle Thea."
Lysander handed me the final renewal potion—a vial of dark red liquid that smelled like rot. "Drink this tonight before you see Dane. It will hold the spell together a few more weeks. After that..." He shrugged. "Make sure your sister is gone before then."
I took the vial with shaking hands.
This was the right choice. The only choice.
Thea was suffering anyway. I'd be ending her pain. And I'd be securing my future.
Everyone won.
As I drove back toward pack territory, my phone buzzed with a text from Father: Found Thea's scent at the northern cliff. Blood on rocks. Search parties combing river. Looks like she jumped.
My heart stopped.
No. No, she couldn't be dead yet. Not before I—
Another text: Update: No body found. Might have survived the fall. Continuing search.
Relief and fury warred inside me.
If Thea had tried to kill herself and failed, she was even more pathetic than I'd thought. But it also meant she was out there somewhere, wounded and weak.
Perfect prey.
I turned my car toward the northern border.
If my sister wanted to die so badly, I'd help her finish the job.
And this time, I'd make sure there was no coming back.